As Florida and other states feint toward disrupting the 2012 presidential primary schedule, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are firing back — an indication that the every-four-years interstate battle for early-state status is under way.

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“We are going to do whatever we need to do to protect our status as first in the South,” South Carolina Republican Chairwoman Karen Floyd said in an interview.

“Florida is daring the RNC to punish them,” she said, calling for punishment that is swift and severe — even potentially moving the 2012 convention from Tampa.

The traditional early states are accustomed to having to fight for what they see as their turf — the exclusive right to hold the first few contests.

In the past, they’ve largely succeeded, though at a price: an ever-earlier primary-season kickoff, with Iowa caucuses just two days after New Year’s Day in 2008.

Currently, Florida is the main obstacle. With a primary on the books for Jan. 31, 2012, the state is in violation of new Republican and Democratic National Committee rules, which prohibit states other than Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada from holding nominating contests before early March.

Despite pressure on the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature to change the date, some top GOP figures — including the speaker of the state House and the president of the state Senate — are saying they like it where it is because they want the candidate attention and party-building that can come with early-state status.

Officials involved in the process say the Florida issue needs to be resolved soon. Whether RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and the early states can stare down Florida will set a precedent for other states that may need or want to reschedule their contests. In some of those states, time will soon run out for legislators to act.

“The RNC has a window during the next few weeks during which it needs cooperation at the state level to keep the early primary calendar intact,” said a campaign strategist experienced with presidential calendar issues.

Another potential threat to the February start preferred by the RNC and DNC emerged this week with the news that Minnesota had a Feb. 7 caucus scheduled by state law.

That’s one day after the parties’ hoped-for date for the Iowa caucuses, making it a potential threat to the one-two punch sought by Iowa and New Hampshire.

Unlike Florida, Minnesota had no intention of upsetting the established order. But that didn’t stop the news of its supposed line-jumping from rippling across the country and setting off a backlash.

Readers' Comments (12)

Florida's processes must be in question .... the "Buterfly Ballot" ... The Calling of The Election by Gov. Jeb guarenteeing his Brother's win (Prior to any voting) ... The Hanging Chad ... The use of Supreme Court as Political Tool ... +++++

This State of Florida may do well to quietly have primany contests in......maybe May?

Liberals hate Sarah Palin, not only because she can win in 2012, but because she is a woman, pretty, smart, witty, confident, refreshing, normal, and bold with an ability to inspire. This drives Liberals crazy. She scares them more than anyone else. They’re so afraid of her, that they will do anything to desecrate her.

Lloyd Marcus over at American Thinker wrote a very compelling piece on this, and I wanted to share it with you all:

This article is not about endorsing Sarah Palin for president. It is about illustrating the liberal media’s ability to brand an image. Case in point, conservatives saying Palin is not smart enough to be president.

The Left launched their “Sarah Palin is Stupid” campaign the next day after her incredible VP nomination acceptance speech. A woman, pretty, smart, witty, confident and bold with an ability to inspire and fire up the conservative base, Sarah Palin was the Left’s worst nightmare. They were livid. The only thing which could have made it worse would have been if Palin was black. The Left would have surely lost their minds.

The clarion call went out, “Palin MUST be destroyed!”

When Sarah Palin appeared on Saturday Night Live, I watched with a bunch of my conservative friends. My friends laughed and made comments such as, “This is great. It shows Palin is a good sport and doesn’t take herself too seriously.”

I thought, “This is wrong. Why help the Left sell the message to their audience that Palin is stupid?” Humor is a powerful sales tool.

The assault on Palin’s intellect intensified daily. Every word out of Palin’s mouth was dissected and placed under a microscope. Then, viewed through a lens tainted with the paradigm that “Palin is stupid”. Who amongst us could withstand our every utterance judged with such extreme scrutiny?

Conservatives saying under their breath at cocktail parties that Palin isn’t too bright is evidence the liberal media’s branding of her has worked on some level.

For crying out loud, what has His Royal Obamaness achieved qualifying him to run the country? Nothing. Obama was a community organizer. He taught people they were entitled victims of an unfair America and how to extort freebies. He only served 144 days in the senate before running for president.

Obama’s presidential qualifications: He is half black and liberal. This won him 100% liberal media support and 96% of the black vote. Obama is well spoken and looked good in a swim suit.

Remember when Obama said America had 57 states? Immediately to his defense, the liberal media said, “Obama was tired”. Imagine if Palin had said the same thing. The liberal media would have gagged us with at least three days of 24/7 coverage of the story. Every report would parrot the same mantra, “This conservative woman is truly an idiot”.

While the liberal media no longer enjoys their Walter Cronkite single voice “bully pulpit”, their ability to brand a person or issue is still quite powerful. They took a man who had never run a business, state or donut shop and convinced millions of Americans he was a political leader unlike any before him. Obama was the smartest guy in the room; eminently qualified to run America and probably the world.

Brilliantly despicable, the liberal media exploited Obama’s race to get their liberal black guy elected. They deemed any attempt to subject Obama to the normal vetting procedures for one applying for the position of Leader of the Free World to be racist. Even Obama’s anti-America associates and racist pastor of 20 years did not matter.

With fake Greek columns on the set behind him, extra reverb on his voice and a teleprompter, the democrats with liberal media support branded Obama, in the minds of millions, as The Messiah. He was “The One we have been waiting for”. You could almost hear angels singing, “Ahhhhhhhhh!”

Meanwhile, without special effects, Sarah Palin truly is a super woman epitomizing everything feminists claim to wish for all women. She has achieved extraordinary success in and outside of the home. And yet, Palin is successfully branded by the liberal media, an idiot, in the minds of many.

Clearly, Palin’s presidential qualifications far exceed Obama’s. As I stated, this article is not about endorsing Palin for President. I am simply illustrating the liberal media’s power to shape an image and public opinion, including opinions of some conservatives.

We tea party patriots have made tremendous inroads in countering the liberal media’s propaganda and getting out the truth. This is why they are frantically burning the midnight oil conceiving ways to shut down talk radio and control the internet.

While the liberal media’s ability to shape public opinion is in severe decline, they remain relentless. They still believe they set the rules of engagement, defining what behavior and comments are deemed racist and uncivil. They even think they can select our candidates; dictating who is and who is not electable.

Some on our side still crave to be accepted by the liberal media. They are embarrassed to be named among those “crazy tea party people”. Thus, they pander to the Left saying things like, “They’re right, Palin is a joke. And yes, we conservatives should be willing to work with liberal democrats”. Unfortunately, willing to work with always means compromising our values, not theirs. Thank God, most of us get it. We realize the left simply must be defeated.

Liberal mainstream media, your glory days of distorting the truth, monopolizing coverage and totally controlling public opinion are over. We The People truly are Taking Back America!

Neither "Liberals" or Democrats or anyone else attacked Gov. Palin as "stupid" when she was nominated. No one knew much about her. It was only after her interview with Katie Couric where she failed to give sensible answers to the questions did people conclude that she was not very smart.

Gov. Palin is not stupid. She is evil. She is very smart at self-promotion. She is just not knowledgeable about the things Presidential candidates hould know about, but what is far worse is that she refuses to learn. She just wants to exploit fear and hatred for her own ends, which are mainly to make a lot of money. This is a woman who made a spectacle of her own family by parading her pregnant daughter in front of the whole country. If she was a decent person when McCain offered her the nomination she would have said no and explained she owed it to the people of Alaska to serve out her turn and owed it to her family to keep them out of the spotlight.

Develop our energy resources that are cost effective, especially Clean natural gas. Transition from oil heat to natural gas. Use more natural gas as a transportation and electric generation fuel.

Continue research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Re-evaluate our aging nuclear power program and plants.

Increase National Security with technology and redeployment of troops on our borders.

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Biography

Personal Married 3 sons, Wife is Native of Iowa, 1 daughter, 3 grandchildren. Son is a Marine Major and Pilot, with 4 tours Iraq

Education M.S., Trinity University, Texas B.A., East Stroudsburg State College

NSF Grant, University of Scranton Marywood College The Pennsylvania State University

Political Experience Capitol Hill Resident, Washington Met Presidents, First Ladies, Secretaries of Treasury, HUD; Former Secretaries of Defense, Energy, National Security Advisor, Directors of the CIA; Speakers of the House, Senate and House Majority Leaders, over 300 Members of Congress, RNC Chairmen, All Military Joint Chiefs of Staff, numerous Generals and Admirals

There is a fundamental unfairness in having just a few early states have a disproportionate influence on the nomination process of the two major parties. And there is no national orginization with any serious cash or stroke to do anything about it.

Still a proposal :

By interstate compact, divide all the states into five or ten groups.

Draw lots to see who gets in which group.

The states of the first group have their primaries or caucuses on the first date.

The states of the second group have theirs on the second date etc.

Four years later, the states in the second group go first and the others move up one. But the states that went first the last goround move to the end of the line.

That is the way we did it in elementary school ( baseball during recess ) Everyone got to be pitcher etc.